Don’t say I didn’t warn you
Have I mentioned that I love cookbooks? I love the luscious writing, the completely, ridiculously aspirational recipes (Hello, French Laundry Cookbook), and the full-color photos which I always imagine that if I can justgetcloseenough, I will be able to smell the truffles wafting right through the paper. It’s porn for foodies. I want to lick the page. I haven’t yet, but there have been a couple of close calls.
My most recent foray into food porn is with The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper, by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift, the co-creators of the James Beard Award-winning and eponymously-named show from American Public Media. I was a little on the fence about this one at first. Although I love me some public radio, sometimes it veers over to the uber-quirky, or the “we take ourselves waaaaaay seriously” side of reporting/informing/entertaining. And although this book does take itself fairly seriously (the tone tries almost too hard to be casual, resulting in the opposite effect, if that makes any sense), it is extremely easy to follow, with recipes that even I could probably put together. The ingredients used aren’t overwhelming (i.e., they can be found in your local grocery store for the most part, even here in O-H, I-O), and in the kitchen tools and gadgets section, they do a great job of telling you what you really need, and what you can utterly live without.
One of the most interesting things about this book is the way it emphasizes using organic ingredients as much as possible. Rather than getting preachy about why we should do this (serious foodie = no likee the preaching. Remember, many of these folks are the same ones who enjoy a nice force-fed duck liver. Therefore, preaching = irritating and not hugely compelling), they instead write about how organic ingredients can add to the flavor of food by allowing cooks to use the whole ingredient, skins and such included. There are also a large number of vegetarian options, or ways to convert many of the recipes into vegetarian meals. But my favorite part may be the shortcut sections they include in every area of the book. No time to make stock (even the great Cheaters Homemade Broth recipe)? Not to worry. They review the best tasting stocks to be found on your grocer’s shelves. They give the same treatment to other ingredients, like canned tomatoes, beans, and similar pantry staples that most of us do not have time to mess with by the time we get home from work.
Another fun part aspect of How to Eat Supper is the general design of the book. You can tell the writers had a good time when they were putting it together. Neat little asides pop up all over the place, including food quotes (my favorite being: “I am not a vegetarian because I love animals, I am a vegetarian because I hate plants. — A. Whitney Brown), interesting food facts, suggestions on building your own library of cookbooks based on subject, and short excerpts of interviews with some of the well-known personalities who have graced The Splendid Table studios over the years.
Overall, this is the type of book that makes me think even I can figure out this whole cooking thing. Perhaps someday I’ll even adopt Sally Swift’s annual resolution, to cook her way through a new book over the course of the new year. If I do someday get up the cojones to do it, I think this may be the book that gets me there.
